Great story
I really enjoyed your post. It brought back many great memories of the past 60 years chasing elk, deer and antelope out west. Like you, it wasn't a numbers game for me,
it was the times spent with friends and family sharing the sights and sounds of our wonderful western states. It took me 17 years before I harvested a really nice bull. My first hunt was in 1962 and my last was in 2000, although I lived in Colorado from 2000 to 2007, but a bad knee and too many last second, very poorly prepared out of state hunters running the woods kept me out of the woods
A jeep has solved my knee problem and in early 2000 I swapped out my Ruger #1 300WM for a 50 cal Knight LRH and now spend about 30 days a year on the Edwards Plateau in West Texas enjoying the scenery and reducing the hog population and removing a few cull bucks.
Couldn't help noticing you were wearing sneakers in some of your hunt pictures. Take it from an beat up 80 year old that a top notch pair of mountain boots will make the rest of your hunts far more comfortable. Good hunting.